Breakdown of Het resultaat is afhankelijk van de keuzes die je maakt.
zijn
to be
maken
to make
het resultaat
the result
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
Questions & Answers about Het resultaat is afhankelijk van de keuzes die je maakt.
English says 'dependent on', so why does the Dutch sentence use van instead of op?
In Dutch, the adjective afhankelijk (dependent) always pairs with the fixed preposition van. Just like in English you have to learn dependent on rather than dependent of, in Dutch you have to memorize that it is always afhankelijk van.
Why is die used for 'that' instead of dat?
Die is a relative pronoun pointing back to de keuzes. Because keuzes is a plural noun (and all plural nouns take the definite article de), you must use die. You would only use dat to refer back to a singular het word, such as het resultaat dat....
Why is the verb maakt at the very end of the sentence?
The part of the sentence starting with die (die je maakt) is a relative clause. Relative clauses follow the same word order rules as subclauses in Dutch, which means the conjugated verb (maakt) is pushed to the very end of that clause.
Is there a way to say this using a verb instead of an adjective?
Yes! You can use the separable verb afhangen van (to depend on). The sentence would then be: Het resultaat hangt af van de keuzes die je maakt. Both options are very common and mean the exact same thing.